Prosecution Makes Case Against Redknapp

Prosecution tells jury to look past Redknapp's fame and convict him

Soccer manager Harry Redknapp (L) arrives with his son Jamie at Southwark Crown Court in London.REUTERS

The prosecution have completed their closing argument against Harry Redknapp, with John Black QC telling the jury to make a "cold, clinical analysis of the issues" when deciding if the Tottenham manager was paid £90,000 into a secret Monaco back account.

Redknapp is accused, along with former Portsmouth owner Milan Mandaric, of cheating the public revenue when he was manager of the club in 2002 and 2007.

The 64 year old is fighting the charges, insisting that the money paid into his account wasn't a bonus, but investment money.

Yesterday Redknapp claimed that though he said in a taped conversation with News of the World reporter Rob Beasley that he was paid the money as a bonus relating to Peter Crouch, he in fact lied to steer the focus off Tottenham in the papers as they prepared to face Manchester United in the 2009 League Cup final.

"I don't have to tell Mr Beasley the truth. I have to tell police the truth, not Mr Beasley, he's a News of the World reporter," he said.

But the prosecution hit back at Redknapp's claims, telling the jury: "Apparently it's all right for Mr Redknapp to lie - 'the difference, I suppose, is I'm on oath here, I wasn't then'.

"In a way he has no choice if he has to run the investment defence. How is he to explain his interview with Mr Beasley? He's driven with his back to the wall to lie."

Mr Black added: "You may have little difficulty in concluding that if it was a bonus, no tax was deducted, no tax was paid - and indeed no tax has ever been paid in relation to that bonus as we stand here in 2012."

The prosecution are heavily relying on Beasley's tapes with Redknapp to show guilt, and Black referred to it as "extremely telling ... and will assist you enormously in determining the truth."

"The problem for Mr Redknapp was that he knew perfectly well what was happening, and he in an unguarded moment on a tape with the News of the World journalist told it as it was. That in a sense condemns him from his own mouth," he said.

The jury will retire and consider its verdicts on Tuesday, the day after Tottenham face Liverpool in an all-important match up.